More photos of Xmas preparation and Xmas puppies

Well we got our menu planned out for Christmas Eve, which will be dinner at home
starting with some Smoke Salmon and fixing and then Lamb filet with vegetables and
I will order the mini Bûche de Noël from Michael Holland. On Christmas Day we are going
to Le Café at the National Arts Centre, they have a very nice menu.

Drove by Parliament and the Christmas lights are amazing the National Capital Commission did a
very good job this year. It is spectacular to see.

This evening we watch on BBC Player on the Internet Chef Delia Smith who lives in Suffolk. She is 73 yrs old now and the programs are about 20 years old but nonetheless very well made and very interesting. She basically shows you how to make Christmas Pudding and Cakes and all manners of
other things for the Festive Season. She had one recipe for a fruit cake which can be made in minutes and takes 90 minutes to cook, very simple and perfect for anyone who has never made one. The one I really liked was the sticky toffee pudding cake and of course all those candied fruits and candied chestnuts, so very good. Now come to think of it we should have suggested to our friend Spo who wanted a recipe for Plum Pudding to watch Delia make one, very simple.

While she was mentioning the ingredients you need and even wine pairing, I felt nostalgic for those days when I would at the Holiday time fly through London on my way home to Ottawa and stop off and buy all manner of food stuffs. London prior to Christmas is a great shopping place and has so much to offer. Even Heathrow still has the real Duty Free shops not the make believe nonsense you find in most airports these days.

Such shows on the BBC really put you in the Christmas frame of mind.

Xmas puppies they sleep about 20 hours a day to prepare for the Holidays.

Holiday Table Centre

Silver snow flakes

this is such a nice Panettone, so good with a coffee.

Will's home made Ginger cookies

We also discovered on the internet radio RMF Classic 98.3 FM Warsaw, Poland. They have a 

very good selection of Christmas music. Music in Polish and English.

Auld Lang Syne on Hogmanay

Happy Hogmanay!

The end of the Old Year and the beginning of a New Year always seems to me like a period of quiet during a hurricane, a bit like being in the eye of the storm for a few hours. If things were not so good yesterday then surely tomorrow will be better. However for me and both of us at Palazzo degli Bassotti Tedeschi it has been a good year. So we can just wish for more of the same.
So many years in so many cities around the world with friends and colleagues leaves me in a mood of reflection. We have celebrated New Year's in Mexico City, in New York City, in Cairo, in Chicago, in Warsaw, in Beijing, in Rome, in Madrid.

Robert Burns wrote in 1788 this poem now world famous and it represents, I think, that feeling of the end of the year. Maybe this year I will greet the Old and New Year with a shot of Single Malt Scotch.

Robert Burns

Here the original words of the poem Auld Lang Syne sung by Graham Duncan.

Happy New Year 2014! Best Wishes to all.

Our Home Christmas decorations

Well we are all set for the Holidays. E-Christmas cards are sent, I like them because they are animated.

I am the one who each year will put the Star on top of the tree, while Will plays paparazzi.

Hope you are all set for the Festive Season. My best wishes to you all for a very Happy and Blessed
Christmas.

 La Befana, the old women of Italian tradition who brings gifts to children while looking for the Bambino Gesu.

 Nicky watching all while relaxing.

Our Nutcracker made in the GDR in 1979, you can't really find nice wood carved ones like this one anymore. He has followed us all around the world.

 The Polish Crèche from Warsaw 1999, made by a Polish artist.

From Salzburg, lead ornaments made by Wilhelm S. Diessen company. Hand painted. 

Returning home

We left Frankfurt am Main on Friday on a direct Air Canada flight to Ottawa. I was happy for a direct flight because it is 8hrs long. I did not want to fly to Toronto or Montreal because that would have meant another connecting flight, though very short to Ottawa.
We arrived in cold weather only 12C not warm, today it is a bit warmer and this week we will go back to normal seasonal weather around 27C.

The puppies were very happy to see us, Nora cried as she always does and then had to go out for a pee. Nicky was also happy to see us but he does not cry. Since our return they have been watching us very closely.

Happy to be home back in our home bed. Our Friend B.P. who was looking after the puppies did a fantastic job and even cleaned and did some plumbing repair for us, just amazing.

The flight back was fine, except that as we were flying over New Brunswick in Atlantic Canada, a female passenger fell ill and lucky for her, two doctors on board came to her help, she was given an IV drip and oxygen. I later heard the crew say that she was ill due to not eating for 25 hours prior to the flight,  a case of low sugar and shock.

We arrived on time, met by an ambulance and paramedics who took care of the sick lady.
Today just relaxing at home, not doing much, a little washing but that is all.  I do have to go on a diet and will probably return to my diet I followed in Italy, small portions and a lot of vegetables and small amounts of meat 100gr daily, no desserts only fresh fruits and lots of water, I would say I need to loose about 16 lbs or 8 Kg.

This weekend 25-26 May is Marathon weekend throughout the centre of Ottawa and along the Canal across the Outaouais River and back, the race is spread over two days, meaning that major roads are closed off and no parking is allowed.  

Official Christmas photos of our Household

We put up the tree last night and we have so many decorations we collected for the last 35 years from everywhere around the world that we can choose and rotate them from year to year. This year we added decorations from St-Petersburg, Russia and from Helsinki, Finland. I also had the task of polishing the Sterling Silver Christmas tree balls all 30 of them.

Our 2.1 meter Christmas tree 2012 edition. (click for larger view)

Our star which has adorned our tree for the last 35 years. With the figure of Humpty Dumpty below.

The Christmas frog in her sleigh.

Lady Bear from St-Petersburg, Russia.

English Page boy from London with some of the sterling silver balls on either side.

Mother Mouse and miniature book

Carabinieri Italy.

Finally a little bit of music for this Christmas Season.
Dagen är Kommen- Adeste Fideles- Psalm 122 sung by a Swedish Choir.
It is quite beautiful to hear this famous piece in Swedish.




To all a very Happy Christmas! 

All I want for Christmas....

We are just 26 days away from Christmas it is cold today, brisk wind about -14C and swirling snow flakes. Will and I have been talking about what we want for Christmas, well this is what I want and I dedicate this song to Will.

Christmas Lights in Ropponghi, Tokyo.

Cooking classes

Today in the kitchen Will was cooking look at the two attentive children of Cerberus, it is cooking class time for Nicholas and Nora.

Of course they want to learn and taste the pork ribs. Nothing could move them from their spot.
To go with the cooking a little Waltz by Prokofiev, what cultured little Dachshunds we have.

This and that in the New Year

Just a few photos in the New Year 2012.

Nicky's look, he has that intense stare, you never know with him.

Just snoozing in the morning sun. Nicky and Nora

Dinner at home, pasta, rose sauce and fresh schrimps and a glass of Moët

Dinner at home with freshly made fries, Will's specialty and a nice steak and a glass of Bolgheri

a few photos

We are down to our last 10 boxes, we have made great progress. The house or apartment is starting to look permanent and we are getting new curtains for the den, master bedroom and for the large kitchen window.
So the end of the moving period is in sight.

Happy Birthday Nicky and Nora!

Tanti Auguri to Nicky and Nora.

Our little puppies turned one year old this week, they have been with us at home for 9 months now. Things are going well and they are just balls of joy. Dogs do bring joy to your life, they are always happy to see you and look up to you no matter your failings. They got a bath for their birthday and next week will get rabies shots. Of course they get treats too.

They are from different litters and have each a different set of parents. Nora is actually a few days older than Nicky. They enjoy the sunshine and will spend their days sunning in the south guest bedroom.